Hyderabad:
Ace cueist Geet Sethi squandered chances galore to suffer a shock 3-4 defeat against unheralded Costas Konnaris of Cyprus in the Masters' category quarterfinals as Indian challenge ended in the World Snooker Championship on Monday.
Another Indian medal contender, Kamal Chawla also ended his impressive run in the tournament with a 1-6 thrashing at the hands of Igor Figueiredo of Brazil in men's event quarterfinals.
Chawla lost 21-86, 06-85, 02-79, 06-72, 58-61, 52-28, 20-69 in a completely one-sided match.
Sethi, who was gunning for his maiden Masters' title, was cruising all along for a semifinal berth, leading 2-0 and then 3-1 only to concede three straight frames and lose 44-24, 76-43, 70-71, 54-15, 47-88, 48-63, 32-62 to his Cypriot opponent.
With the exit of Sethi and Chawla, Indian challenge in the prestigious world event ended as none of the home players getting past last eight stage.
Yesterday, India's biggest hope reigning world champion Pankaj Advani had suffered a stunning loss in the men's event.
All the Indian women players had also made exit from the tournament with the loss of Meenal Thakur and Vidya Pillai in the quarterfinals yesterday.
Sethi started the proceedings on a confident note, pocketing the first two frames quickly.
Sethi carried on his form in the third frame and just when he was about to take a 3-0 lead, he committed a potting error and gave his opponent the much needed break as Konnaris made full use of the opportunity and won the frame 71-70.
However, the local favourite got his act together in the next to win it 54-15.
But, that was the last time Sethi smiled, as after that Konnaris displayed some excellent potting and cushion work to take away the game from the hands of his higher placed rival.
Sethi was the runner-up in the masters' category last year at Wels, Austria. He lost to reigning champion New Zealand's Dene O' Kane.
In the men's event, Chawla was put under immense pressure from the start by Figueiredo.
Figueiredo rode high on his long distance potting to draw curtains on the impressive run of youngster at the Hyderabad International Convention Centre.
In another match of the day, India's Lucky Vatnani lost 61-21, 29-58, 56-66, 40-103, 60-26, 66-36, 17-89, 42-62 to Scotland's Anthony McGill in the pre-quarterfinals of the men's event.